Digital Origin
by Redred33mer
Summary: A/U. After the energy source for the supercomputer is refilled, Xana possesses the power to do much more than he could imagine. Pondering the reason for the consecutive successes the Lyoko warriors, Xana begins formulating new plans for victory.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: New Plans**

"C'mon Odd, you can't be falling behind that much!" Ulrich teased, running along a narrow glacier path with Yumi and Aelita.

"I'm not falling behind, I'm just keeping a rear guard, that's all. Besides, you never know what Xana might pull out from under the sheets," Odd answered with a humorous smirk.

"Alright," Jeremie began to tell them, "you got three tarantulas waiting for you at the tower, and you might want to pick it up because a megatank is rolling in behind you." Odd turned around, receiving this piece of information.

"I'll join up with you guys in a minute, keep going to the tower!" Odd called out, raising his arm to prepare for his enemy.

"I'll get to cover," Aelita said.

"Then c'mon Ulrich, it's you and me. Hey, Jeremie, would you mind programming our vehicles? We could use the lift," Yumi explained.

"They'll be at the end of this path right before the tarantulas." With that, Jeremie began typing away scripts and codes on the keyboard, and as the three got to the end of the glacier footpath, Aelita took cover behind a curve in the main platform. As she did, Yumi and Ulrich had no problem in mounting their vehicles as they appeared right before them. Taking off, rapid-fire lasers approached them from the ground.

"Time for a party," Ulrich said, but as he got to the tarantulas, his bike was hit. Disappearing, Ulrich fell right on top of a monster.

"Impact!" With one stab, he picked his sword out of the monster's eye and jumped to the side as it exploded. He caught the attention of one and began blocking shot after shot as Yumi circled around in the air with a fan open, picking her time to strike. She threw it as a laser hit her off her Overwing. The fan swooped down, straight through the head of the tarantula with a following explosion.

"Now, Aelita, while Ulrich keeps the last one occupied!" Yumi yelled to their pink-haired companion. She ran across the open field of blue as the tarantula looked at her. Seeing as Aelita was a more important target, it turned away from Ulrich, who ran up immediately afterward. Making a mistake, Ulrich failed to block a laser, knocking him on the ground.

"Oh no! One more hit and you're done for, Ulrich!" Jeremie exclaimed in panic.

"Yahoo!" Odd cheered as he dived forward. "Laser arrows!" Three arrows came out and hit the tarantula's body to the side, ultimately defeating the last monster.

"It's all you now, girl, c'mon!" Odd pushed Aelita cheerfully on.

"Just another day," Ulrich said almost with some disappointment. Without question, Aelita sunk into the tower, and stepped to the middle of the first platform. Flying upwards, she eventually came on top of the second platform, it beeping like the first. A touch screen appeared before here and she put her hand flat on it. The words "Code Lyoko" were magically typed in on it, and all the files with random compilations of information on the inside of the tower began to speed downward one after the other, then almost all at once. A white light came from what seemed to be the bottom of the tower.

"Return to the past, now," Jeremie said coolly, hitting the enter button. A blinding light expanded from the hologram projector of the supercomputer, engulfing all things as it magically turned back time.

* * *

To Xana, defeat seemed inevitable at this rate. The Scyphozoa had never been successful, his new designs were always trashed by the warriors, and no matter how many he sent, they'd always be destroyed. Like when they massacred a bunch of Bloks after being brought back to Lyoko from Xana's universe mimicking trick. All gone. The warriors simply adapted too quickly to their environment, and that's what became key in what would be the next design, versatility. Another tower was to be activated.

* * *

In the morning, as Jeremie was about to head off to class, a beeping came from his computer, with a picture of a tower and a red dot in the mountain region appearing. He looked at the screen and wondered.

Soon enough, they all joined for breakfast.

"You know, I'm getting real fed up with all these Xana attacks," Ulrich began.

"Uh oh, here comes another of Ulrich's anti-Lyoko temper tantrums," Odd interjected with a mild humor.

"No, I'm serious Odd. Almost every day, he attacks, and we always go and beat him, go back in time, relive the same day, go and fight him again the next day, and relive that, too. And even with his new inventions, it's not even a fight anymore." Saying this, Ulrich took a few bites of his food as his friends thought about his words.

"Well even so, we can't deactivate the computer until we find an anti-virus for Aelita," Jeremie responded.

"Besides, it's not the worst thing in the world. I don't know anywhere else where I can have superpowers and save the world every day fighting monsters, do you?" Odd rhetorically asked with a tone of his usual optimism.

"It doesn't change that having this job just generally sucks now," Ulrich answered pessimistically. "Anyways, it's almost time for class, I'm gonna head off."

"Me too, I get to have fun with a math test first thing in the morning," Yumi said.

"Hold on, just a minute everyone," Jeremie pleaded.

"What is it?" Jeremie turned to look at Aelita first, then everyone else before he spoke up again.

"Earlier this morning, I decided to check if any of the towers on Lyoko were activated, and it said that one in the mountain region was. Have any of you guys heard or seen anything suspicious?"

"No, everything's just fine, there wasn't anything on the radio when I got up this morning," Yumi told the group.

"I don't know what it is, but it seems out of place," Aelita answered.

"Well unless anything starts acting up in school, I say we wait until after school to check it out, okay guys?"

"Okay," they all said in random order to Jeremie. The group then dispersed, going on with their daily lives as usual.

"Hey Ulrich," Sissy started, with Herb and Nicholas following close behind as was normal.

"No, Sissy, I don't want to go to the library with you to look up why cancer spreads," he interrupted. She stood there, confused as he moved on with his life.

* * *

It was finally the last class of the day, and Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie and Aelita sat as Mrs. Hertz babbled on about mathematical equations that half the class would fail anyways. Odd looked at the clock as he counted down the seconds until the last bell rang.

"Five... four... three... two... one," Odd counted, and as he thought, the bell rang. Without another thought, the Lyoko warriors got up and headed for the park. As they descended on a flight of stairs, and finally reached outside, they ran into their favorite PE teacher.

"Oh hi Jim," Aelita greeted hurriedly.

"Whoah whoah whoah, hold on now, where do you think you guys are going?" The question stopped the group dead in their tracks as they hurriedly tried to come up with a satisfactory answer for Jim.

"We're ugh... we're going to the park," Odd scrambled to say.

"Yeah, I was gonna teach them some martial arts," Ulrich picked up on what Odd needed to finish.

"Oh, well I'm sure you guys will learn a lot from him. Move along," Jim said coolly. The four moved along, joining up with Yumi at the park sewer cap.

"What took you guys so long?"

"We got held up by Jim, you know, being all suspicious and everything," Aelita told Yumi. They took their usual route, going down to the sewers, out to the skateboards and scooters, to the bridge manhole cover, down the ropes, then the elevator, then to the hidden equipment for Lyoko. Sitting down at the chair behind the computer, Jeremie began launching codes.

"Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Aelita. Transfer, Yumi. Transfer, Odd. Transfer Aelita. Transfer Ulrich. Virtualization!" In a flash, the four spawned in the mountain region of Lyoko. "Alright, now here come your vehicles." The Overwing, bike, and board spawned in front of them, and Aelita hopped on with Yumi as the warriors flew closer to where they were told the activated tower was.

"You guys got hornets behind you and two mantas ahead," Jeremie notified his friends. "But um... I'm picking up some strange activity having to do with the Digital Void. I'm not sure what he's up to."

"I doubt it's anything special. Besides, we'll have this tower deactivated in no time at all," Ulrich assured Jeremie as the two mantas came into sight. Some lasers were shot but easily dodged in the air, and was lucky enough to hit one of four hornets behind them.

"I can see the tower there," Aelita pointed out, extending her finger in the activated tower's direction.

"Well you guys keep going, I think I got these," Ulrich suggested. "Hyah!" The swordsman jumped off his bike, letting it drop onto a manta as he rode the other one. The hornets got closer, firing at Ulrich which destroyed the Manta he was riding on, but he jumped high up into the air before the hard surface below him faded away.

"Triplicate!" Three Ulrich's lined up with the three remaining hornets, and all the copies slashed through, eliminating the threat.

"Great job, Ulrich!" Jeremie praised, as he turned his attention to the forward part of the group. "Now Aelita, I don't want you to deactivate the tower yet." Aelita, Yumi, and Odd came closer to the tower. Below was a narrow rock footpath leading to a larger circular rock platform with a gap in the middle of. In this gap, a red beam of light came up from the Digital Sea.

"Why not, Jeremie?" Aelita asked.

"Because he might try to trap you in the Digital Void before the time travel, for all I know, or someone on Lyoko. I want to find out what it's for, first." Jeremie began typing away on the computer as the three Lyoko warriors settled down on the path to take a closer look.

"Hey Yumi, try throwing your fan through this to see if it's like a vacuum," Odd suggested.

"Alright," Yumi said, taking her fan out. She flung her fan threw the cylinder with no effect at all, to the cylinder or to the fan.

"Huh, that's weird. I'm gonna try jumping through it," Odd told the rest of the group.

"Wait, Odd!" Jeremie commanded, but Odd ignored him as he flew right through the red beam of light.

"Well that's weird," Odd noted, looking up and back to see Ulrich joining them. "Welcome to the party."

"What's this?" Ulrich asked.

"We don't know," Jeremie told Ulrich. "But we're about to find out."

* * *

Well, this is the first chapter in Digital Origin, and I'm sure you're all going to guess that it all starts with this red beam of light, which, it does. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter of this up before Monday, because I won't have access to the internet all of next week. A couple things to keep in mind is that this is supposed to take place after "Common Interest" after the energy source is refilled. Some of what happened between then and now are numerous, forgettable Xana attacks, as referenced by Ulrich in the beginning of this chapter. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and until the next one!


	2. C2: Digital Birth

Chapter Two: Digital Birth

Jeremie grunted angrily as he failed to uncover what exactly was going on in this strange beam of light.

"I can't do anything about it at all! I have no idea what's happening!"

"Well... we do..." Ulrich uttered uncertainly. The virtual outline of a new character appeared in the red light, and particles began to fill it in. It was a pale boy with a baggier maroon suit, like a robe. His boots were heavier, and he had black shin guards. The figure also had flat black hair that was longer in the back, going below his shoulders. He seemed to be about the same age as the rest of the Lyoko warriors, but as they could see, there was an eye of Xana on his forehead. He dropped in the gap of the footpath, and grabbed onto a ledge. After him, his weapon, a white, reflective scythe appeared where he came into Lyoko, and dropped behind him. Gasping in worry, the strange character grabbed his scythe with one hand, then hooked it onto the ledge opposite of him.

"Agh!" He swung by his scythe to the rock face, then kicked off of it as he swung up.

"Are you seeing this, Jeremie?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah... I can't believe it, there's no one in the scanners, so I have to think that Xana found some way to craft people from the Digital Void!" Jeremie exclaimed, trying to find out more about the new opponent. The Lyoko Warriors watched in awe of the efforts put in by Xana and its complexity. However, the new person swung up onto the ledge in front of its scythe and almost touching Odd.

"Watch out!" Ulrich called to his friend as the Scythe swung up and was about to overhead Odd. However, he dodged with a swift sidestep and held up his arm.

"Laser arrow!" As the arrow shot from Odd's wrist, the scythe-carrying figure stepped out of the way, and the arrow flew at the rest of the Lyoko warriors. By this time, the red beam of light from the Digital Void disappeared, and the arrow almost hit Aelita's cheek. Odd's eyes widened, and the ominous fighter took the opportunity to hit Odd in the side with the blunt part of the weapon. Odd cried out as he was about to fall into the Void.

"Yah!" Yumi flung both of her fans at Odd, devirtualizing him. Back in the scanner room, Odd fell to his knees and proceeded sluggishly to the elevator, but the battle on Lyoko persisted.

"This is like the first time we fought a tarantula and it took us all out," Ulrich said, jumping to fight the man. However, the character turned his back and ran towards the tower. As he went, the path widened to the flat, circular rock platform the tower was on. "Hey where are you going? We're not done yet! C'mon guys!"

Yumi and Aelita followed behind Ulrich as he ran after the new character.

"Alright, I got some data on this guy. He has five times as many life points as you, Ulrich, be careful. And we have no idea how he fights," Jeremie told the swordsman, looking at the ID the supercomputer gave him on the screen.

"Nothing we haven't done before. Super sprint!" Ulrich held his sword out to penetrate and rip through his enemy, but upon hearing Ulrich's words, the man quickly got on one knee and turned his upper body to swing his scythe at Ulrich. It stopped his advance as Ulrich needed to block the strike, but his defense was broken as his opponent got up and roundhouse kicked him.

"Ulrich," Aelita called, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, get to the tower, me and Yumi will take care of this guy, whoever he is."

"Yeah, what are we gonna name this guy?" Yumi asked.

"Well I don't have a name, so I don't know," the character responded. His voice seemed normal and undistorted, and it froze all of the warriors. It wasn't like any other monster Xana made. It talked to the warriors, it looked like a warrior, it was calm unlike Xana's specters. It was another mystery to the Lyoko warriors.

"Ugh..."

"Go, Aelita!" Ulrich yelled. Aelita began running to the tower and Yumi and Ulrich approached the nameless character.

"Triangulate!" The expected happened, as the scythe wielder studied the triangle. He stabbed one of the Ulrich copies with his scythe, then turned and threw his scythe sideways at another. It began to curve back to its owner, but Ulrich ignored it and persisted his attack. With a series of ducks, sidesteps, and jumps, each of Ulrich's swings or stabs was proven to be futile.

"Watch out Ulrich!" Yumi warned.

"Wha- Ow!" The scythe knocked Ulrich on the ground, and was caught by the robed character. He sprinted off toards the tower as Ulrich struggled to his feet, and Yumi prepared a fan to throw.

"Aelita, he's going to enter the tower!" Jeremie panicked.

"What? Since when can Xana's monsters enter towers?" Aelita questioned, turning back and standing in the middle of the first platform. She came face to face with the new creation alone in the tower.

"What... what are you?" Aelita said fearfully.

"I'm your team's counterpart. I'm designed to thwart any and all your efforts wherever they may be, especially in Sector 5," he answered, approaching Aelita. "Now then." He turned his back and held the scythe vertically. The bladed part pierced Aelita's abdomen, and he used the blade to fling Aelita out of the tower. He quickly pursued, but went past Aelita and dashed at Yumi.

"Take this!" Yumi threw a fan blade at the man but it was deflected by the scythe.

"I'm coming, Yumi!" Ulrich sprinted to aid Yumi in her encounter. Two strikes were blocked easily by her before she backspringed away.

"Be careful, Ulrich, he took away eighty of your life points with that one hit!"

"Eighty life points!? Are you serious?" Ulrich exclaimed, not believing the strength the fighter had. "Impact!"

Ulrich held out his sword, going to stab their opponent, but Ulrich's sword was hit aside by the other end of the scythe, and their new fighter turned and hit Ulrich with the bladed end of the scythe, devirtualizing and defeating him. Aelita watched some distance away. She knew that if she tried to get into the tower, she'd be thrown out and devirtualized by the mysterious warrior, and she was useless in a fight.

"Well, it's your turn Yumi," he said. "But I'll show you a superpower first, because I can." He took the scythe by the neck and it shined a bright orange. Then, a triangle large enough for someone to fit through was carved, and you could see into the desert sector after a blinding white light connected the two rifts in the air. At the edges of the triangle, the gate faded off into dark red particles.

"Not without a fight," she answered, getting her fans ready. Yumi stood her ground as her enemy approached, and threw a fan far out to the side. Again, a few strikes were blocked before the virtual creature jumped high up and flipped behind Yumi. Yumi was occupied with catching the fan and turning around but was easily grabbed by the hair.

"Have a nice trip!" The boy ran with Yumi in hand and her screaming in fear as he launched her through the wormhole. It sealed shut upon her passing through it, leaving him and Aelita left. It was silent for a moment as the two stood still.

"I guess I'll tell you why the tower was activated, since I know none of you found out," the nameless figure said. "It was to gain control of security cameras, to study and get data on how humans behave and what their personalities like, what they sound like, how they judge and adapt to situations. Every time Xana lost, I'm led to believe by him, is because you warriors adapted too well. So I was created to be the counterpart of that. To adapt like you do. All the data was compiled and taken from this cloud of information you call the Digital Void. Which is what I was made from." As the character paused, the tower deactivated itself.

"Why are you telling us this?" Aelita asked.

"Because Xana tells me it doesn't matter if you know or don't. So I did. I'll be stuck here on Lyoko, like you once were, and I'm just trying to make the most of my time."

"Your voice isn't distorted like Xana's other manifestations, why?"

"Well..." As he was about to tell him, a wave of pain rushed into his head, causing him to collapse on his knees and drop his scythe. Aelita observed this as she wondered what to do, but before she had time to act, he was standing back up again. "You're asking too much."

The creation picked up his scythe, and held it up high.

"Goodbye," he said, striking quickly down into Aelita. Aelita devirtualized finally, and came back into the scanner room. She rejoined the others back up by the supercalculator.

"Well that was strange. He was a lot friendlier than the others," Aelita noted.

"But still one of Xana's creatures," Ulrich added.

"I'll be here awhile trying to get data on this new creation. It seems weird, I'm thinking this new person is not designed to be fully under Xana's control."


	3. C3: Exploits

So I know I haven't written anything here for awhile, as I've had things to do in life and have been writing some other things. However, I wondered if this would become something that'd pay off, something that many would enjoy reading. So, I'm writing another chapter of Digital Birth. Here's another chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Three: Exploits**

In the desert region, the new, personified monster sat atop a pillar of stone, looking out unto the seemingly ubiquitous, plain area. Everything was quiet on Lyoko, much like when Aelita was trapped in the digital world. All was still, as XANA planned his next move, selecting which tower would be best and what tools in the modern world would be most useful. The creation let his hood drop, revealing a pale bald head, and then he let his scythe drop into the virtual sand with the handle of the weapon sticking up at an angle. Sighing, a black, holographic screen appeared in front of him; it was a feature of the creation's, and he began looking through archives of information.

"I already know all of this stuff, what am I supposed to do?" he asked himself. Scrolling and pushing his way through various caches of knowledge, the screen stopped and beeped. The words, "ACCESS DENIED" appeared on it, the eye of XANA showing itself in the top right corner of the screen.

"What do you mean, access denied?" he asked, an edge in his voice. Pushing on keys on the screen to begin to unlock the access, XANA intervened.

"Agh!" Grunting, the creation keeled over and fell from the height of the rock he sat on. The terminal in which the new monster used shrunk to nothing, and he was left wincing and clutching his head in pain, curled up in a ball like a helpless infant.

"What are you doing to me?" he cried out, rolling onto his back and looking up to the sky.

* * *

In his dorm room, Jeremie sat looking at his computer. The new being's faceplate was displayed on the computer, showing that about twenty of five hundred life points went down.

"That's odd, is he hurting himself?" the tech wizard asked himself, still watching as a new window laden with scripts of the digital character's profile. As it loaded, it got to a certain point where the computer screen blinked off. "Hey, what's the idea! XANA must have put in a crash file for when I go to look at the information in this guy's background."

"Still fussing over that new monster of XANA's?" Aelita said, walking into Jeremie's room. "Dinner's in 15 minutes, why don't you take a break from that, Jeremie?"

"I'm just trying to find one thing useful before I leave it alone, Aelita," Jeremie told her frustratedly, taking his glasses off for a moment to rub them. Aelita walked over and stood behind Jeremie, looking at the computer. Putting her hand on one of his shoulder, she looked down at Jeremie.

"Don't get too stressed out about it. We'll learn how to handle him on Lyoko-""And what if it's too late by then? What if thousands of people die first?" Jeremie interrupted sharply. "This isn't a game, Aelita!"

"I know it's not a game, Jeremie. Getting bent out of shape over a new problem and lashing out at me over it isn't going to help anyone, either, Jeremie!" Aelita exclaimed, going towards the door. "Take a few minutes and put yourself together, and come to dinner, please."

Watching her walk out of the room, Jeremie turned back to his desk. he leaned over and looked at his arms, contemplating the causes and effects of what just happened. Picking his head up, he looked at the computer and waited for it to reboot. When it did, all was normal.

"Well there's nothing to find in the digital void, and nothing I can get from this guy's profile yet. Maybe we need to go to sector five," Jeremie spoke once again, to himself. Rubbing his eyes, he finally chose to get up. "I think that's what we'll do-"

"Hey you," a voice from the computer spoke.

"What-"

"You're Jeremie, right?" A window popped up with XANA's new underling. His hood was up, casting a shadow over his face.

"Wait, you can do that?"

"No, I'm talking to you."

"You're just a thing!" Jeremie blurted, trying to assert some leverage over the artificial intelligence.

"So? What does that have to do with you trying to go through my coding?" the being continued to interrogate.

"How do you even know I was doing that?" Jeremie cried indignantly.

"Because I am a god of this world," the entity said with a smirk.

"Yes, but your world exists inside of mine. I could shut it off if I felt like it. Don't play yourself up."

"Well..." Jeremie left his new enemy silent. Proud of his psychological victory, Jeremie went with a condescending smile towards his computer and proceeded to prepare it to shut down, for if it were left on, the new creation might create issues. Better safe than sorry, Jeremie thought.

"Can you bring me to your world?" Striking silence and awe from Jeremie, in an instant, the window closed itself.

* * *

"Wait, so this thing actually decided on its own to talk to you?" Ulrich asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, at first it was trying to intimidate me or something, but his plan backfired on himself. He thought he was a 'god of his world' but I told him I could simply shut his world off," Jeremie explained to the rest of the group sitting at the table in the cafeteria. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd continued to eat as Aelita became struck with fear at the comment.

"You wouldn't do that, would you Jeremie?" she asked with worry.

"Are you kidding me, Aelita?" Yumi began, "you should see how Jeremie talks about you when you're not around."

"Hey! I wouldn't say anything behind her back I wouldn't tell Aelita herself!" Jeremie cried in a childish tone. Aelita smirked.

"Are you sure about that?" she said teasingly. Jeremie sat silently and blushed as he put a forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

"Oh, I just can't stop dreaming-" Odd began, but Jeremie interjected.

"Will you stop already!" The table went silently as Jeremie went to quickly finish his food. Finishing what was left that seemed okay to eat (as it was the school's cafeteria food), Jeremie stood up.

"Would you at least come back and finish your food?" Aelita pleaded.

"Yeah, well you guys can have it," Jeremie replied coldly, walking off towards one of the building's exits. Each of the Lyoko warriors stayed silent and all but Aelita kept eating. A moment passed before anyone decided to say anything.

"What's up with Einstein there, couldn't even crack a smile," Odd asked.

"I don't know," Aelita answered, "I'm gonna go talk to him before bed."

* * *

A soundless Lyoko continued its existence. However, this persistent groaning and muffled screams could be heard somewhere amongst the desert. The being lie not far from where he was originally in the desert, as the towering pillars of rocks could be seen in the canyon behind him. Keeling over in the open flat lands, the creation continued his cries. He gripped his scythe tightly, attempting to handle the pain.

"Agh... Ack!" Instead of slowly fading away, the intensity of the pain XANA inflicted upon his new fabrication. He slowly picked himself up, standing as he grunted in pain. Using his weapon, he was able to keep his balance as he swayed wearily.

"Urgh!" Yet another wave of pain came over his body. However, if he were to drop down in pain, it would mean he submitted to XANA. "I will not crumble under your affliction, XANA. I will not be confined to this microcosm you have placed me into." As the entity shook under the pain he was subjected to, his body simply fell unconscious in the digital world. It seemed he became surrounded in this void of white, where nothing existed. It was like a purgatory for anything trapped in the world of Lyoko.

"What did you do with me..." he struggled to say. It seemed that this was punishment for his defiance, and there seemed like no response would ever come.

"You are trapped in the ghost channel, an infinite space for those who have conceived errors in their design on Lyoko," a celestial, ubiquitous, and disturbingly deep, warped voice spoke. XANA's experimental creature floated through this void, but began to turn around. As he did, he could see darkness overcome the void, as the background changed to black. A blue light grew in the background, carving a curved line in the void. Soon, two more lights began to shine, and continued to carve circular formations. Suddenly, they went out, and in the following few seconds, shone brightly. Their was this blue, fiery, omnipotent eye of XANA floating in the void with the being.

"You are trapped." The words echoed in the back of the new being's mind, surrounding his thoughts and slowly chipping away his sanity.

"I want to move beyond a world I know practically everything about, that's all," he murmured, his tone filled with misery and humility.

"Behave and obey, and you shall be devirtualized," the voice told him. His eyes widened with the prospect of escaping what he perceived as a prison, a setback to becoming tangible, to becoming real.

* * *

Jeremie sat in his room alone, the only source of light coming from his computer as he typed away codes and passwords to get back to his research of the experimental creation of XANA. He sighed as he tried to shake away the happenings of the evening. Pulling up the digitally crafted, warrior counterpart's faceplate, the actual art of the ID card only showed static. There was a definite location of his body, but it only showed a static picture. Eventually, there came a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Jeremie called out, a slight edge in his voice.

"Can I come in, Jeremie?" Aelita asked through the door. Rather than respond, Jeremie didn't answer. Aelita hesitated before she willed herself through the door, preparing for whatever loaded things Jeremie could say to her.

"We're all worried about you, Jeremie. What's going on?" Jeremie didn't answer, but instead kept typing away in his expedition to find more information before what could be the end of the world befell society.

"Well," Jeremie finally began, "aside for the treatment towards me which is synonymous with dirt, nothing's going on."

"Why do you think we're treating you like dirt?" Aelita asked, confused as to how he came up with that idea.

"Hm, let's see now. Every time you guys have to go to Lyoko, you seem to just expect the vehicles to show up, the virtualization process to go over like nothing, trips to the past be like a piece of cake, and it's every time. And who comes up with the software to see if XANA's at it again, or see how to do these new things, who comes up with this data and puts it all together? It's not your problem if things go unnoticed and XANA blows up half the city, which he's come very close to doing. It's mine. And when I have something important to say, you treat me like a joke."

Jeremie's words left Aelita with nothing to say for some time. However, her presence didn't stop Jeremie from keeping on the work he took upon himself to do. Finally she stood up and walked over to him.

"You just need a break," she said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder like she did earlier. "I can do this, Jeremie. Why don't you go to sleep? You need it."

Rising from his chair, Jeremie wiped his eyes, his vision blurry for looking at the computer so much. As he stood, Aelita leaned over to hug him.

"Are you okay now?" she asked, embracing him. Jeremie blushed and struggled to find an appropriate answer to her question.

"Ugh... yeah." Letting go of him, Aelita sat down and Jeremie looked at her. At least now he could rest, and he laid down on his bed as Aelita began typing away, trying to figure out what was going on in Lyoko.

"He's lost a hundred hit points?"


End file.
